Zimbabwe gives banks a year to hand over stakes

* Targeting banks part of drive against foreign firms

* Mining firms complied with local ownership law

* Private schools, energy and tourism firms targeted

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE, July 3 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has given foreign-owned
banks one year to hand over 51 percent stakes to locals,
according to a government notice, as President Robert Mugabe
ramps up a drive to force all foreign-owned businesses to
surrender majority control to blacks.

A government notice released last week said all
foreign-owned banks with a minimum net value of $1 had one year
to reduce their shareholding to 49 percent.

The southern African state has already forced mining
companies such as Rio Tinto and Impala Platinum
, the world's second-largest platinum miner, to turn
over majority stakes in their local units to black Zimbabweans.

Emboldened by his success against miners, empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere is now targeting banks.

Kasukuwere, a 41-year-old member of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party,
has clashed with central bank Governor Gideon Gono and Finance
Minister Tendai Biti over the banking sector.

Biti, a senior member from Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party and Gono, a
Mugabe ally, have opposed Kasukuwere, arguing Zimbabwe only has
four foreign banks out of 26 financial institutions.

Kasukuwere could not immediately be reached for comment but
he has previously vowed to pursue foreign banks which he accuses
of refusing to provide loans to the agriculture industry and
small black businesses.

"Foreign banks are safe because they deny you funding ... so
we have got to transform them," Kasukuwere was quoted as saying
by the private NewsDay last Thursday.

Standard Chartered Bank Plc, Barclays Bank Plc
and South Africa's Standard Bank and Nebank
all have operations in Zimbabwe and would be affected
by the latest regulations.

ZANU-PF has been criticised over the past decade for
patronage when seizing white-owned farms. Critics say many farms
are now in the hands of party loyalists instead of the landless
black peasants who were supposed to benefit.

Critics of the takeovers of mines and banks say ZANU-PF is
using the policy to try and win votes ahead of elections which
will be held in the next 12 months.

The government notice also said private schools, which used
to be a preserve for whites but are now largely multi-racial,
should in the next year be majority owned by blacks.

The majority of Zimbabweans attend government-run schools,
which are only starting to recover after a decade of economic
crisis left the schools without books and teachers, who sought
employment in neighbouring countries.

The energy, tourism and telecommunications industries also
have to comply with the empowerment law in the next year.